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Mammoth, LADWP reach agreement to end court case over water rights

Water managers in Mammoth Lakes say the creek is the town's lifeblood. A settlement between the Mammoth Community Water District and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power preserves supplies for the mountain town while satisfying LA's claimed rights. Molly Peterson/KPCC

The DWP and Mammoth are calling the settlement a win-win. Mammoth retains the right to use the amount of water it does now, and will maintain rights to the water it anticipates using well into the century.

In exchange, the Mammoth Community Water District will pay the DWP $3.4 million to set up water conservation and efficiency projects around the creek and the Owens Valley, and make another payment of several million dollars in about 40 years.

DWP officials say the settlement won’t reduce the amount of water L.A. gets from Mammoth. Officials from Mammoth's water district point out that about 60% of what the town uses is returned to the downstream environment naturally. Conservation efforts paid for by the settlement may yield about 1,779 acre-feet of water annually. Consequently, in the short run, the eastern Sierra may yield more water for L.A.

Previously in Pacific Swell

KPCC's Molly Peterson on a Gilligan's Island style tour of environmental stories in and affecting Southern California. Named for the Yvor Winters poem: "The slow Pacific swell stirs on the sand/Sleeping to sink away, withdrawing land..."
Follow the blog at @PacificSwell and Molly at @KPCCmolly.